Are You Kidding Me?
by Duchess Eileen
Summary: Sometimes, the best gift is the simplist. //Kataang . Oneshot.//


**Are You Kidding Me?**

_Sometimes, the best gift is the simplest._

By Duchess Mint

Disclaimer : I am unfortunely just a rabid Avatar fan. I don't own Avatar. :(

**__**

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"Katara, babycakes! ... Ah, no." Frowning, the almighty Avatar shifted his position, kneeling down on one knee and offering the giant water-ice mirror, which was starting to melt, the flowers. Clearing his throat hastily, Aang spoke boldly, "Baby, you're my forever girl!"

"Look, I'm flattered, but you're just not my type." With a yelp, Aang jumped to his feet, and spun around, hiding the flowers behind his back.

"Toph!" He gasped, "Um, what are you doing here?" The earth bender let out a chuckle, crossing her arms.

"Oh, nothing really, Romeo." Aang bit his lip, racking his mind for some good excuse to explain his behavior. Taking a few steps closer to him, Toph stopped. "Are those _flowers, _Twinklestoes?" She laughed loudly, a large grin spreading quickly across her face.

"Er, no! These are... um..." There was a pause, in which Toph continued to grin triumphantly. "... flowers." Aang admitted with a sigh.

"Are you kidding me? What, and you plan on giving those to Katara?" Laughed Toph, and Aang's face immediately flushed.

"No! But, well, kinda- just as a... um, thanks-for-being-there kind of... thing." Of course, the flowers were really more then that. Aang had spent nearly two hours picking them, trying to find the rarest and best flowers. It was odd, but with the invasion approaching fast, Aang was starting to get anxious- he felt like he needed to wrap up his life in the next few days. In a way, he was entering a death trap. Firelord Ozai, unfortunely, wasn't notorious for being a pushover.

"Aang, girls don't like _flowers_." Toph said the word like it was some sort of disease, causing Aang to flinch.

"They don't?" He said weakly, glancing at the flowers which he'd worked hard to gather. Toph just snorted, before walking over to Aang and snatching the flowers from his hand.

"Unless you want a girl to think you think she's a wimp, you should never give a girl flowers." She instructed, tearing the flowers up as she spoke. Aang could only watch as his hours of work were ripped up. But the flowers were useless anyways; he definitely didn't want Katara thinking he thought she was a wimp.

"Er, what do girls like?" Aang asked shyly, rubbing the back of his head. It felt odd to be asking his earth bending teacher and good friend such a question, but he as he figured it, who better to ask girl related questions than to a girl?

Toph let out a loud hum, before taking a bite of the ripped sections of the flowers she'd yet to toss onto the ground. Chewing thoughtfully on the flowers, she tapped her chin. "Rocks." She finally answered, before spitting out the flowers. Eyeing the flowers remains for a moment, Aang sighed deeply.

"Rocks."

"Yes, rocks." Toph repeated contently.

"She's not an earth bender, Toph, she's a water bender." Aang was pretty sure that a rock would go unappreciated if given to Katara. In fact, he was pretty sure that she'd think he'd lost it if he handed her a rock.

"Then why are you asking to me?" Snorted Toph loudly, turning on her heel. "Toph out." Aang watched as she stalked away, scowling.

"Great, what now?"

**_-x-x-x-_**

It took quite a bit of thought. But eventually, Aang had remembered another thing that he was pretty sure girls liked.

It'd taken awhile to get the present. He'd had to fly to a town over on a nearby island, and search through the town for a good quality box of them. It would be worth it though, in the long run. Deep in thought of what could be, Aang had actually flown into a flock of alligator-pigeons on his way back from the town. He'd been lucky to escape unscathed.

When he got back, he found the campsite deserted, except for Appa, who was sleeping, and Sokka, who was cleaning his boomerang. For the third time that day.

"Clean weapons are important!" Sokka said defensively as Aang's eyebrow raised questioningly at him.

"Sure." Was Aang's simple reply, as he made his way over to his Appa. "Where's Katara and Toph?" He asked innocently, rubbing the side of the bison's muzzle.

"Out scouting around." Sokka replied idly, glancing up from his work at Aang. A silver glimmer caught his eye, and he leaned to the right, trying to see just what Aang was carrying. "Whatcha got, Aang?"

"Er, got?" Aang repeated, gulping. Quickly shifting the small box behind his back, Aang grinned sheepishly. "I don't have anything." But Sokka was already too curious to take that as an answer.

The warrior leapt to his feet, and a second later was trying to get a hold of the box. "Come on, Aang, let me see! What is it?"

"It's nothing!" Aang yelped, leaning backwards and trying to keep the silver wrapped box out of Sokka's reach, which was very difficult, being Sokka was much taller then the air bender.

"Is that one of those heart-shaped chocolate boxes?" Sokka suddenly started laughing, as he got a good enough look at the parcel. Aang immediately denied this, but Sokka was unconvinced. "Holy badger-mole Aang, is this for a _girl?_" The warrior demanded as he snatched the heart box from his shorter friend.

Blushing heavily, Aang attempted to get the box back. "So what if it is?"

"Oh, wow Aang." The look on Sokka's face was one of pure shock. Aang stopped, gulping softly. Would he guess the same as Toph? Sometimes, Sokka was incredibly smart. "So, you like a firenation girl? Interesting!" And sometimes, Sokka was incredibly dense.

"Er, yea. A firenation girl." Aang agreed, rubbing his neck awkwardly, his face burning. "What can I say? I like them... er... flaming?" Sokka nodded several times, as if that came as no surprise.

"But, chocolates, Aang? Really?" Aang stared at Sokka, mouth slightly agape.

"But... but... what's wrong with chocolates?" Girls loved chocolates. That's why they were often sold in heart-shaped boxes. _For _girls. At least, that's what Aang'd thought.

"Aang, Aang, Aang." Sokka said, shaking his head in disappointment. "Girls don't like chocolate." Feeling like an anvil had just been dropped on him, Aang weakly responded.

"They don't?"

"Nah, makes them fat; you know how girls are." In contrast to that statement, it was actually starting to seem to Aang that he knew very little about how girls were. Very, very little.

"So... what do they like?" The avatar asked, tapping the chocolate box pensively and chewing his bottom lip.

"Who likes what?" Sokka monotoned, his eyes now attached to the silver box. With a sigh, Aang handed the box of chocolates to Sokka, who immediately tore into it, grinning.

"_Girls, _Sokka. What do _girls _like?" Aang stressed, scowling as he watched the water tribe boy pop the lid off the box. Sokka didn't respond at first, as he was caught up in admiring the six different types of chocolates that were stuffed into the box. "_Sokka!_" Aang snapped, his nerves fraying.

"_What!?_" Sokka snapped back through a mouthful of chocolate. A moment passed, where Aang glared at the warrior. "Oh yea! Girls. Um..." Stuffing another piece of chocolate into his mouth, Sokka continued thoughtfully, "Sensitivityness."

"Sensitivity? Like... what?"

"How should I know?" Laughed Sokka, as he reached for a few more chocolates. Glancing back up at Aang and receiving a heavy glare, he sighed. "Look, girls like guys who are in touch with their feminine side. So... do something really girly. Like, oh! Make her an ice sculpture!" With a large grin, Sokka continued, raising his hands as he spoke to magnify the glory of his suggestion, "Cause then she'll think you must of worked really, really hard on it, even though you just made with water bending! Yea, a girl would definitely love that."

**_-x-x-x-_**

The sun was starting to set, and Aang had finally finished his new gift for Katara. At first, it seemed like it would be easy. All he needed to do was bend the water into the correct shape. But Aang quickly learned that bending a large amount of water into a specific design was near impossible on large scale. In fact, it was even hard on a small scale. That didn't stop the Avatar, though, from adding the minute details he'd originally planned in his head.

Stepping back so he could fully admire his work, Aang grinned. The sculpture was amazing- there was no way a girl couldn't love it. Running his fingers carefully along the small spinning designs that decorated the giant waves he'd sculpted, he inspected for any bare spots or chipped spots. But his sculpture was pretty much perfect.

"Alright Katara, prepare to be stunned!" He proclaimed aloud, before closing his eyes and carefully dislodging the chunk of earth that the ice was sitting on from the ground.

**_-x-x-x-_**

Katara was hunched over the small camp fire, poking at whatever unfortunate creature's meat Sokka had managed to catch, when Aang arrived back at camp. Grinning, he slowly moved out into the camp, the chunk of earth, with the ice sculpture sitting upon it, following him shortly. As silently as he could manage, Aang placed the sculpture behind him, bending the earth into a perfectly flat surface.

Winking at Appa, who was watching the air bender curiously, Aang turned around to Katara. Taking a deep breathe, Aang spoke. "Hey, Katara!" As Katara glanced back at him, Aang swallowed, a blush starting to build in his cheeks. "Um, I made this for..." Something was wrong with Katara's gaze. Very wrong. The young air bender shifted his weight, swallowing again. It wasn't going like he imagined- Katara was supposed to be stunned... not... well, confused, as she seemed to be.

"Um, Aang, what is Appa eating?"

"Appa?" Aang repeated with wide eyes, before swiveling around. Sure enough, Appa was eating something. And that something was the ice sculpture. "Appa! No, bad!" Aang yelped, but the damage had already been done; the sculpture was indistinguishable from a giant ice cube. The bison blinked at the boy for a moment, before returning to chewing on the ice sculpture.

"Um, Aang?" Katara asked, unsure of just what had caused Aang to stop and stare at Appa as if the bison had just eaten a baby. "Are you okay?"

"Fine..." Aang muttered with a large sigh, before swiftly leaving the camp.

**_-x-x-x-_**

Murphy's Law. Never before had Aang hated anything so much. No matter what gift he came up, it ended up failing. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe he was just too much of a goof.

Caught up in self-pity, Aang didn't notice Toph until she cleared her throat noisily. Even then though, he only glanced at her from the corner of his eyes momentarily.

"You're acting like a baby, Twinkletoes." It didn't seem like Aang was going to respond, at least, not at first. But his lips twitched downward after a few seconds, and he finally spoke.

"Toph, I spent all day just trying to get some sort of little gift for Katara. But no matter what I did, I couldn't get it right." His voice was stern, dark even. It was significant to say that he was upset.

"What's the big deal? Is it her birthday or something?" Toph remarked, and Aang sighed.

"I just kind want to show her that I like her..." Aang admitted, blushing as he spoke, "But," He said, leaning forward and pulling at his hair, "I'm just too much of a goof."

"You could just tell her that you like her."

"Oh right!" Aang laughed harshly, leaning back against the tree behind him, "I'll just skip over to her and say 'Hey Katara, I'm in love with you!' I'm sure she'll take that well."

About eight yards away, hidden in the trees, a certain water bender covered her mouth with her hand, eyes going wide.

"You don't know until you try." Toph reasoned, one corner of her mouth tilted up.

"Yea," Aang snorted, his voice sadder, "Like I'll ever have the courage to tell her."

"You just did."

Before Aang could ask, Toph slammed her foot onto the ground, causing a loud uproar as the trees behind her and the ground they were anchored to shifted left and right, leaving one large clearing, in which Katara was standing. Mouth agape, Aang stared straight at the blushing water tribe girl.

His heart seemed to have stopped. She heard him. She heard him say that he loved her. A moment passed, and he was on his feet.

"Aang, wait!" Ignoring her cries, Aang dashed quickly away, not even sure where his feet were taking him. Mind, body, and heart racing, the air bender made his way deep, deep into the forest.

**_-x-x-x-_**

It was the day before the invasion; today, Sokka wanted to move closer to the shore, and more toward the north of the island. The reason that they'd been camping in the center of the island was to avoid being spotted from enemy ships. But they would need to keep an eye out for friendly ships, which could only be done easily from the shoreline.

Knowing that Sokka would be freaking out around now, Aang forced himself to start to head back towards the campsite. The night had been awful- he hadn't been able to get much sleep, and what little he did get had been filled with nightmares. The sun was still rising, painting the land a soft shade of orange.

When Aang finally arrived back at the campsite, he was met with an odd sight. The entire camp was empty, save for Appa and Momo, both of whom were sleeping peacefully. Appa stirred though, as Aang slowly strolled into the campsite. The giant bison let out a loud yawn in greeting; Aang smiled weakly at his giant furry companion.

"Hey buddy." The air bender muttered softly, cautiously moving towards the center of the campsite. Gazing at the fire as he approached, he frowned. It was still lit, although it was burning weakly. He could also still smell whatever meat had been cooked for breakfast. The campsite was recently abandoned, but for what reason, he couldn't fathom.

Caught up in inspecting the remains of breakfast, which actually seemed pretty appetizing to the Avatar, being he hadn't had either dinner nor breakfast, Aang didn't hear the soft footsteps until they were right behind him.

"Aang." He knew the voice, and again Aang felt like running. He didn't want to face her, didn't want to listen to her explain that he was 'just a brother' to her. But his feet seemed to be made of lead. A moment passed, before a soft, cool hand grabbed his arm gently. Gradually, Katara forced him to turn around. _Eventually, I'd have to face her. _Aang reasoned, swallowing as he prepared for the worse.

Raising his eyes to hers, he flinched. Her eyes were red, and small trails could be seen, glimmering down from her eyes across her cheeks, disrupting the smooth beauty of her face.

"Katara, I'm sorry-" He began automatically. He didn't get the chance to say more though, due his mind shutting down as her lips touched his. A few seconds passed, in which Aang continued to stare wide eyed at her face, which was only a few centimeters from his own. And then, his eyes slipped closed, and he kissed back.

It was unreal. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before. It was like fire works were going off in the back of his head. Her lips were magical: soft, smooth, perfect. His right hand slipped up into her hair, fingers tangling with her locks, while his left went to her waist, pulling her closer to him.

As quick as it started, it ended. Katara pulled away slowly, sighing. "You don't ever have to get me anything, Aang." She said softly, her sapphire eyes boring into him. Her face was red, much like his most likely was. "I mean, if you think about, you're pretty much giving me," Pausing, Katara let out a weak shy laugh, before correcting herself, "well, giving everyone, the world. And that's all I could ever ask."

_That is a pretty good gift. _Aang agreed thoughtfully, his eyes taking in the blushing girl before him, _Good enough... for now, at least._ With that, he leaned forward and meet her lips once again.

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I hopes you enjoyed my fanfiction. :) It makes it all worth it when I get reviews, so please, review!

This is my second Avatar oneshot, and I actually think I did it purdy well. I might do a Katara point of view for this story, maybe. If yall think that'd be cool.

Duchess, out!


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